Posts Tagged ‘LTB’

Thousands of Ontarians live in affordable housing units provided to them by non-profit organizations but which are owned by private sector landlords. The nature of the legal relationship between these three parties is unsettled: a few cases have addressed it but there has been no consistency in the decisions. In large measure, the parties have worked around the lack of clarity in the law without the assistance of the Landlord and Tenant Board (the LTB). The nature of the relationship, however, has come to a head in a couple of cases now before the LTB, both involving Toronto based providers of supportive housing to tenants with mental health disabilities.

The Landlord and Tenant Board has just issued its first co‑op eviction decision resulting from a full Merits Hearing. The case was heard on October 17, 2014. We attended with witnesses on behalf of our Co‑op client; the Co‑op member also attended. The arrears in this case were large and resulted from the revocation by the Co‑op of a subsidy. LTB Member, Sylvia Watson, heard evidence from both sides and ruled in favour of the Co‑op. Significantly, Member Watson agreed with the Co‑op that Section 203.1 of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) prevents the LTB from deciding or reviewing decisions about the eligibility for or the amount of subsidy. She also relied on section 94.9 of the RTA which says that the LTB “shall not inquire into or make any determination as to whether the member’s membership and occupancy rights were properly terminated under section 171.8 of the Co-operative Corporations Act.” These are both important sections of the Act for co‑ops and co‑op members to keep in mind in this new world for co‑op evictions. As noted in the order, the Co‑op member intends to appeal this eviction decision to Divisional Court. Stay tuned here for the final outcome.

Since June 1, 2014, the Landlord and Tenant Board has handled co‑op evictions in Ontario. So, I’m sure you’ll all wondering, how has it gone? We were wondering too, so we reviewed the first ten orders that have been issued by the LTB and published on CanLII, Canada’s free on‑line database of legal decisions.

The recently introduced bill related to co-op housing eviction reform included something new: an amendment to the Residential Tenancies Act that would allow the Landlord and Tenant Board to waive or defer application fees charged to low-income Ontario tenants.

This seems to have caught everyone off-guard including the PC housing critic who expresses his concern that while the filing fee is nominal, $45, this change could lead to an increase in tenant applications on an already over burdened system. Read the rest of this entry